“So you didn’t choose to be an avenger, right? Then why keep chasing revenge after the god’s dead? Their leash snapped; they shouldn’t own you anymore.”

Her words dropped like a pebble into still water, breaking the hush.

“If it were that simple, would we do something this pointless? We never had a grudge against her.”

Remi’s voice held winter’s edge, breath thin as cold mist.

Alicia glanced at Remi’s body; her bloodless skin looked like chilled porcelain, a statue set in frost.

“Is something binding you?”

Her question felt like tapping iron chains hidden under silk.

“I…” Remi blinked, doubt fluttering like moths around a lamp. She started to speak, then swerved. “…No… no…”

Seeing that caught-between-words look, Alicia understood in a heartbeat. She let her blade sink like a falling leaf and slouched like a cat into sunlight.

Remi stared at that relaxed face, bewilderment buzzing like a trapped bee. Was she being looked down on, or what?

Before the suspicion could root, Alicia answered, voice calm as rain on tiles. “Don’t be so startled. Breathe. Relax.”

Distrust pricked Remi like thorns; she stayed standing, a quail wary under a hawk’s shadow.

“Really, don’t tense up,” Alicia went on, tone steady as a lantern flame. “That presence who gave me power mentioned this. She said if you voiced disgust at gods, I shouldn’t fight you. She also said your so-called bindings are nothing to her. So don’t worry.”

Hearing her nightmare chains were small as spider silk in another’s eyes, Remi froze, then burst like firecrackers. “Really?! Where is she? Tell me! I want to meet her!”

She grabbed Alicia’s shoulders and shook, motion a storm rattling shutters.

Alicia, dizzy as a spinning top, swatted the hands away and looked helpless. “Calm down, okay? Let me finish.”

It mattered too much; Remi swallowed the rush and sat up straight, spine like a bamboo stalk.

Alicia exhaled, relief a warm breeze, then drew a pink vial from a cloth pouch, glass glinting like peach blossom. “See this? She gave me this. If that thing happens, I’m to have you drink it.”

Remi took the vial and tilted it; the liquid moved like soft silk, nothing strange swirling within. She popped the cap and caught a peach-sweet scent, like an orchard after rain.

Alicia watched her hesitation, eyebrows lifting like gulls. “What, not drinking?”

Remi hid the vial behind her, then sprang back dozens of meters, wariness sharp as a drawn bow. “What if you’re scheming? Prove your words!”

Alicia blinked, a courier caught mid-road. “Right!” Memory lit up like lightning. “She said the moment you drink, your and Flan’s bodies will return to normal. She said you and Flan did nothing wrong—stuff I didn’t get. Mostly, that you two could finally sleep a peaceful sleep. It was all scattered—bits here and there. Who knows what she meant.”

Alicia didn’t get it, but Remi did; comprehension flared like dawn. She stared at the vial, then lifted it without a tremor and drank.

“Hey! What if it’s a trick?!”

Even Alicia felt a chill, worry rippling like wind over tall grass.

“Even if it’s fake—if it’s for freedom, for Flan—so what!”

Her voice rang like a blade on stone, fierce and clean.

Alicia’s worry thinned, a cloud breaking. She knew that heat too; for Ling, she’d burn the map and run through storm. When danger called, she’d dropped everything and followed that phantom, even when the phantom insisted Alicia be the one to fight and handed her boosts to match Remi. In the end, the harvest was good; that was enough.

As the potion settled, lines surfaced on Remi’s skin—glowing veins like river maps by moonlight. The light dimmed, embers ebbing to ash.

Kachak—

The patterns began at the crown and cracked like glass, shards of brightness falling silent.

When the last thread shattered, the glow stopped, and Remi’s body gathered warmth like spring thaw. Her height rose by a few centimeters, bamboo shooting after rain. Elder-sister grace returned, a quiet authority like a temple bell.

If Remi had first looked like a fragile art piece, now she stood like a living person before you, no longer a doll propped on a shelf.

Flan changed in lockstep, light tracing her like twin tide. Only her height stayed as it was, small flame steady.

Three minutes later, Remi’s lashes trembled and lifted, grogginess misting then clearing like morning fog. She snapped her gaze to Flan and, seeing no harm, let her heart loosen like a knotted ribbon.

She looked at her hands, once vague as smoke, now flesh-solid and warm. The binding was gone, a snapped net sinking into dark water. She couldn’t speak; tears spilled like summer rain and said everything.

When the flood eased, Remi lifted her head and met Alicia’s eyes—the giver of this new spring. She pulled Flan close, dropped to one knee, and spoke with shrine-solemn weight. “Remi and Flan thank Miss Alicia for helping us escape this tragic misfortune.”

Alicia flushed, embarrassment blooming like a shy flower. “Don’t make too much of it. I didn’t do the heavy lifting. If you’re thanking someone, thank that phantom.”

“No! Without Miss Alicia’s help, we’d have to kill Miss Ling just to keep crawling forward. Otherwise, the curse on us would grind us into pain. We truly thank you, Miss Alicia. As return, please let us become your personal maids!”

“Let us become your personal maids!”

“Your maids!”

“Maids!”

“!”

“Eh?”